hey mom, take a picture!

   "mom, can you take a picture of me with my parrot?"                                   "can you put it on your blog? .....right now?"   

sew excited!

i haven't bought myself anything in a long time ...but i've been swooning over this dress pattern for a while (it's even on my to-do list!) i'd also really like to take dottie angel's 'challenge of the utmost kind', wherein you commit to a whole year of only buying second-hand or hand-making items for yourself & your home. this should be easy for me because we haven't had money to buy things for so long anyway that handmaking things is becoming more of a delightful necessity. but, in order to take this challenge of not buying anything new, i first had to buy something new: this anna maria horner pattern. i think it's quite versatile; i can make long or short dresses with it & i'm also going to modify it into a top. anyway (yay!) it arrived yesterday,   along with some joel dewberry fabric that was very on sale -all from pink chalk. it is already washed & dried, so hopefully i can hack into it at naptime today!!      

garden shananagins & a sad cheesecake

i left the hose on to soak some plants, ran in the house to check on the laundry & look what i came back to...  

   who needs a swimming pool?                       ....other garden news (doesn't take much to get me excited): i was beginning to wonder if my little eggplant would ever amount to anything as its been under constant insect attack & it's been budding but then the flowers usually fall off. well look what a surprise i got today ...

        it's called 'fairy tale' eggplant- how sweet is that?             .....& yet still on another note: learned this morning my cousins from wyoming are visiting & we all decided to have dessert at my house this evening. i've been wanting to try making this ricotta cheesecake that sounded divine. i went thru the pain of whipping & folding eggwhites (enough said) & was told to bake for an hour till set & golden brown. two minutes before my timer goes off, with kids screaming in the tub, i casually check to see if my cake is starting to gently brown, thinking i'd be early & this is what i see ...                               so sad. i hope i can salvage it.....

sweety girl's quilt

I can restrain myself no longer!! I bought all this gorgeous fabric almost two years ago to make C a quilt for her big girl bed ...but, even though I wanted to dive right in, I put it aside, telling myself I better finish some old projects first. Well I have finished up a few, but not as much as I'd like; I just can't stand letting this adorable stash of yummies sit there anymore.

So I refined my vision in my head & started chopping away :) I love how it's coming along so far. This is not going to be a hurry-up marathon project, though. I really want this to be special, something my daughter will hopefully treasure for a long time (at this point in her little life, she'd be thrilled if I went to walmart & bought her a cheesy, bright pink "princess" bedspread! (shudder)) But I know she's going to love this & later on she'll be so thankful she got this instead. I'm adding lots of special touches like hand embroidery, applique & ric-rac; so like I said, it'll be a slow process. 

     ....and here's the little dolly quilt I already made for her to match her future quilt ...         

critters in the garden

Look who I saw munching on my fennel today? Isn't he gorgeous? I forgot that I have read before that fennel is part of a butterfly garden to give the caterpillars something to eat. That's ok handsome, we only need the bulbs; just make sure you come back and show off your wings!       

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Also saw this shy little guy poking around. Isn't he adorable? I think he'll just have to have a whole family one of these days...  

finished quilt & BQF entry

 Blogger's Quilt Festival

 Well I finished the quilt I've been working on this week for my friends' wedding/first anniversary gift. Although I've been making quilt tops for a few years, this is the first good size quilt I've done from start to finish. I quilted it in a plain straight stitch on my trusty little machine, not free motion, so I could only do so much. But I'm really happy with it in the end; I love any of Amy Butler's fabric & this is her Charm line. I love making handmade gifts for friends & believe everyone should have a quilt that becomes an old friend the more you snuggle with it, wash it & love it. Next year I hope to enter something more planned out, but since I had just finished this I didn't want to pass up the chance to be included!       

         

more of the garden

           this zucchini plant is a monster! he needs a name. 

my little soil tester...

   

             that's potatoes & watermelon behind him               

quilting continued

I'm determined to get this quilt done by this weekend so I've been staying up late working on it, which is not so smart. I can fall into this habit, since I crave my alone time so much, of staying up once the kids are finally in bed. I really pay for it ..& yet I keep doing it. And of course, if I focus on one thing, everything else goes to shambles; if I have a day in the garden, the dishes & laundry pile up; if I get into a project & try to keep up on the house, by the time I get back into the garden the weeds have taken over! Right now I have all of the above: dishes, laundry & weeds. And I'm not even doing a great job putting this quilt together. Like I said, it's my first quilt to complete start to finish -I usually just do the top. I might have started on a smaller quilt of course, but that would have been too sensible. But to cut myself some slack, this is what I have to work with:

a very plain, very old machine with no fancy quilting foot or platform or whatever else I would need. So I guess considering, I'm not doing too bad. It'll be fine. And I will try to make myself get some sleep tonight so I don't sound so whiney next time.  Oh! But we did get our first zucchini out of the garden today & now we are going to go eat him! 

     

...a superb lesson in procrastination

here's lovely quilt i'm working on. it's actually quite beautiful. it's one of those projects i'm making for someone else that i really wish i could keep for myself. it's made from amy butler (my fav), i think the line was called 'charm', mixed with solid four-patch. it will be the first quilt that i'll be finishing from start to finish- yikes! when we lived in wyoming, i worked in a fabric store for a lady with a long-arm machine, so i'd just do the fun part of sewing the quilt top & then trade work for her doing the rest of putting my quilts together. now i don't have that luxery as it's quite expensive, so..... i'm looking forward to it though. the pathetic part of this story is that it's a wedding present for some friends that got married...a year ago. yep. when i didn't get it finished for their wedding, it got put aside, destined to be a one month anniversary present. then a 3 month. then a 6 month. now their anniversary is june 11 & i'm determined to present it as a true anniversary gift... i'll let you know how that goes ;)                                                                                                         

                                  

a boy... & a quilt

Just thought I'd put up a few pics of this gorgeous boy ...this first one is from a few months ago; he found a  Dove dark chocolate & sneakily popped the whole thing into his mouth, foil & all. He was not so willing to let me fish it out...                                  

      

...he loves cars (makes the bbbbbbbrrrrrrrrr horsey lips sound every time he sees or hears something with wheels or motor) & mud & water & music (i.e. drums!!)     

...here he is today playing in a box. Handsome little goober.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Been sewing. Quilt tops are coming along quite nicely.

                                                                                                                                                                                                    

love this kid!

 Eating soft-boiled eggs at breakfast, my little sweety girl says excitedly, "Soon we'll be able to eat our own eggs, won't we mom?!"  "How's that, babe?" "Because now we have eggplant in our garden!"  ...adorable :) She does know where eggs come from, just a little confused about a possible second source. Ok, gonna hopefully get this boy down for a nap & get some more quilting done... Since I don't have a picture for today, I'll put up this from last October when C was a flowergirl in a friend's wedding. I made the wreath on her head from fabric flowers & leaves; also the little fabric flower on her dress to coordinate with wedding

colors.   

         

                 

a quiet creative moment

...for mom & daughter. Little brother is sleeping, so C wanted to paint. I also wanted to take advantage of the alone time, so I set her up on the floor near my sewing table & had a little time to work on a project my mother-in-law commissioned me to do because she doesn't have time (like I do? haha) I love quilting & it's nice to put together a couple small quilt tops without having to put them together & bind them; especially since it's with such adorable fabric. They are for her granddaughters, sisters, so they're from the same fabric but will each be a little different. I'll post my progress soon ...my camera ran out of battery before I could get more pics...

we call her the snail whisperer...

We had a good ol' Texas thunderstorm this morning! (I of course forgot to put out the garbage last night, so it was my first thought as I opened my eyes & had to roll away from the sleeping toddler quietly & then run to wheel the trashcans out to the street. I didn't mind though; it was a delicious, soft, warm rain.) The wet makes the snails come out, which are C's favorite pet right now, so she's been going around collecting them, while sonshine plays in the mud.... The garden is also enjoying the weather; I think some things grew 3 or 4 inches over night :)

i sewed something!

 I want to make many more dresses for my little girlie-girl, especially since she wants to wear them everyday. I just used up some fabric in my stash but i really love how it turned out so sweet & old fashioned, especially without the pants. I hate making buttonholes so I just made little ribbon loops instead (that gapping on the back view is just her moving, not my sewing.) ... I'm definitely no seamstress & there are a few puckerings on the bodice, but overall I'm happy with it.

peace and quiet ...what's that again?

  We are all sick with a cold, the whole little family. My baby son is full of such an amount of the yucky stuff, you can't believe it can fit into his cute little 19 month old head. So this morning, trying to have a peaceful breakfast ...son is running from his daddy, who's chasing him with a roll of toilet paper to clean up his nose, while big-sister sings a sweet little song for him that goes something like this: "You are a little stinker, you have a snotty nose. Nobody cares about you anymore ...when you cry." Ok, so not peaceful or sweet, but it made me laugh.

it's the little things...

  I'm working on being a better mom in the little things... like saying "Yes!" instead of  "later", or "maybe", or "we'll see".  i.e: "Mom, can you read me this book?" (in the middle of the day --I'm a big bedtime book reader, but while I'm trying to do dishes?) "Sure, sweety." -- "Mom, you said we could face paint! Can we now?" "OK, now's as good a time as any." --"Tag! You're it - now you chase me!" (just do it -it's good exercise.) I'm just trying to enjoy all these little moments that are all too fleeting ...someday they'll be grown & gone ...& I'll still have dirty dishes.                                     

my garden in may

...and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden. --Joni Mitchell                                                                                              I'm in garden mode right now. This is my first vegetable garden & I'm so dang proud of it.
(It goes without saying that its "organic." Isn't that the only way to grow a food garden?)   I had a lot of help to get it going --my wonderful husband tilled the whole thing ( I tried & couldn't do it --it's hard work!) & my awesome brother built the raised boxes. From there it's been my baby & I'm out there every day. I highly recommend everyone have some kind of food garden for therapy -even if it's just some herbs or tomatoes in a container --something to get your hands in the dirt, to check on lovingly everyday or so to see its progress & feel so proud when you put something on your table that you grew yourself. I'm hooked now.